A police officer who gained widespread notoriety for telling a protester at the infamous G20 summit that “this ain’t Canada right now” committed battery when he manhandled him, Ontario’s top court has concluded.

The ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal overturns a lower court finding that Sgt. Mark Charlebois had only touched Paul Figueiras at the June 2010 event in downtown Toronto.

Sgt. Charlebois committed the tort of battery

“Even if Sgt. Charlebois was authorized to stop Mr. Figueiras and demand that he submit to a search, I do not accept that the grabbing and pushing that occurred here were ‘necessary’ to achieve this purpose,” the Appeal Court found.

“Sgt. Charlebois committed the tort of battery.”

The weekend G20 summit was marred by vandalism and the largest mass detention and violation of civil rights in Canadian peacetime history.

Geoff Robins / AFP / Getty Images files A protester smashes a window in the Toronto's downtown core June 26, 2010 after a small group of anarchists broke from the main anti G20 demonstration and began a destructive march through the downtown. Clashes erupted on the fringes of a large protest march outside the G20 summit in Toronto on Sunday, as hardline protesters set fire to a police car and scuffled with riot officers.

The particular incident occurred when a group of York Regional police officers brought in for the summit stopped Figueiras and his friends who wanted to demonstrate in favour of animal rights and told them to submit to a search if they wished to carry on walking down the street.

Figueiras refused, arguing the request violated his rights.

There’s no civil rights here in this area

Charlebois’s response caught on widely viewed video was to grab Figueiras, push him away and tell him to “get moving.”

The protester turned to the courts, seeking only a declaration that the officers had violated his constitutional rights and that Charlebois had committed battery by grabbing and pushing him.

In the lower court ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers found police had acted lawfully and that any force Charlebois used was minimal and justified.

The actions taken by Sgt. Charlebois and his team were not reasonably necessary and had little, if any, impact in reducing threats to public safety

The Appeal Court disagreed on both counts.

Brent Foster/National Post /FilesThe Ontario Court of Appeals in 2007. The court has overturned an earlier ruling and found a G20 officer committed battery during the 2010 summit in Toronto.

“Rule of law is a fundamental principle of the Canadian constitution,” the court said.

“The actions taken by Sgt. Charlebois and his team were not reasonably necessary and had little, if any, impact in reducing threats to public safety, imminent or otherwise.”

The officers, the court found, were not simply controlling access to an area as might happen at an airport or courthouse where they have specific authority to screen everyone. Instead they were targeting some people and forcing them to submit to a search — without any authority to do so.

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“The intention motivating the police conduct was therefore to stop everyone who appeared to be exercising their freedom of expression, and to impose an onerous condition upon them,” the court ruled.

Peter J. Thompson/National PostPolice penned in hundreds of protesters at the corner of Spadina Avenue and Queen Street in Toronto and made many arrests despite no violence, during the G20 Summit, Sunday June 27, 2010.

“The officers’ remarks further undermine the reasonableness of their conduct, and aggravate the harm to Mr. Figueiras’s liberty.”

Police, the court concluded, violated Figueiras’s constitutional right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and liberty.

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Mr. Ford, now a city councillor, was ordered to make the apology by the integrity commissioner, who found that his racist remarks last year violated the city’s code of conduct.

“Mr. Mayor, members of council, I’m deeply ashamed of what I said and I recognize that they bring discredit to both myself and council as a whole,” Mr. Ford said in city council chambers on Tuesday morning.

“I wish to offer my heartfelt apology for my words and my actions.”

The integrity commissioner’s report was sparked by a 2014 complaint from Canadian-Ethiopian journalist Samuel Getachew, who took issue with two instances where the then-mayor used racial epithets.

Mr. Ford called taxi driver a “racial slur” and used “mocking language sounds” in 2012, integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson wrote. And in 2014, the Toronto Star obtained a recording in which Mr. Ford could be heard saying, “Nobody sticks up for people like I do, every f—ing k–e, n—r, f—ing w-p, d-go, whatever the race. Nobody does. I’m the most racist guy around. I’m the mayor of Toronto,” he said.

Mr. Getachew also claims that Mr. Ford’s office gave him incorrect information on when the councillor would be apologizing. He says he had invited a number of offended Jewish and Ethiopian community leaders to hear Mr. Ford’s apology, but they missed it because Dan Jacobs led him to believe the speech was occurring at 2 p.m., rather than the actual 10 a.m. start.

“That is an outright lie,” Mr. Jacobs said. “I made a deliberate point of not giving a specific time because we didn’t have a specific time.”

Bernie Farber, the former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, confirmed that Mr. Getachew invited him to the apology. Mr. Farber said he was told to be there between 2 and 4 p.m. But he said Mr. Getachew made no mention of Mr. Jacobs and instead said his information was coming from other city councillors.

Mr. Farber wouldn’t have made it anyway, because he was ill Tuesday.

Nonetheless, he called the apology “very important.”

“The lesson it teaches in the long run … is that racist bullies get caught,” Mr. Farber said.

With files from Natalie Alcoba, National Post and the Canadian Press

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/rob-ford-apologizes-for-racist-slurs-for-italian-jewish-and-black-communities-while-he-was-toronto-mayor/feed/0stdRob FordToronto police arrest one of two brothers wanted in connection to shooting death of teenhttp://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/toronto-police-arrest-one-of-two-brothers-wanted-in-connection-to-shooting-death-of-teen
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/toronto-police-arrest-one-of-two-brothers-wanted-in-connection-to-shooting-death-of-teen#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 13:53:09 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=731190

TORONTO POLICE SERVICECurtis Murray, 25

Toronto police say one of two brothers wanted in connection with the shooting death of a Toronto teen is now in custody.

Homicide Det. Tam Bui says Curtis Murray has been arrested.

Murray, 25, and his 29-year-old brother Corey Murray are both wanted in connection with the death of 17-year-old Trevor Seraphine, who was gunned down earlier this month outside an apartment building in the city’s northwest end.

At a news conference Monday, police announced that first-degree murder warrants had been issued for the two brothers.

Ontario government officials say it will not cover an $85-million shortfall for the beleaguered $2.78-billion Spadina subway extension.

That means the City of Toronto will be on the hook for another $51-million — in addition to the $90-million already being requested of it to help cover a $150-million budget increase for the delayed project, according to a report written by city manager Joe Pennachetti. As part of a cost sharing arrangement, York Region has also been tapped to cover $60-million in cost overruns.

Mr. Pennachetti says the $85-million shortfall stems from a trust fund set up by the provincial government. It put $870-million into the fund, and projected interest earnings of 4%, for a total original project commitment of $1.059-billion, according to Mr. Pennachetti. But it never made the money anticipated.

Mr. Pennachetti wants council to ask the province to cover that amount. But provincial officials quickly shot down that idea.

In a statement, transportation minister Steven Del Duca said the Trust “was never obligated to offset or make up the shortfall in its original projections.” He blamed the anticipated shortfall on a “return on investment [that] has been lower than hoped, as a result of the 2008 global market collapse and recession.”

In a follow up email, his spokesman said the Ontario government’s commitment remains $870-million. It is putting up the most cash. The federal government has contributed $697-million while Toronto, before the cost over runs, approved $526-million and York Region $352-million.

“We have every expectation that the TTC will complete this project in its entirety as per the plan and the agreement, as expeditiously as it can,” the minister stated.

The cost of the $2.6-billion six line has increased to $2.78-billion, not including the cost of settling claims by contractors. It is also further delayed, and will not open until the end of 2017.

Outgoing Toronto police chief Bill Blair on Friday gave his officers new orders on how to engage and document non-criminal interactions with the public in a set of directives that pleased the police union, but left members of the black community disappointed and concerned.

Officials spoke of the pair of documents — a recast board policy, and the accompanying chief instructions to rank and file — in lofty terms on Friday, with the chief calling it a “remarkable milestone” and Mayor John Tory describing it as an “important landmark.”

Alok Mukherjee, the chairman of the Toronto Police Services Board, said it “strikes the right balance” between treating everyone fairly and keeping Toronto’s neighbourhoods safe.

“We cannot live in a city where young black men, for example, feel devalued or disrespected,” said Mr. Tory at a press conference at police headquarters. “At the same time, we cannot and should not have groups in our city with a predetermined hostility to the police.”

The new procedure enshrines the ability of police to collect and document interactions with people who are not being detained or under arrest — a practice known as carding — and prohibits officers from using “race, place of origin, age, colour, ethnic origin, gender identity or gender expression” to initiate such contact, unless they form part of a specific suspect, victim or witness description.

‘We cannot live in a city where young black men, for example, feel devalued or disrespected’

Officers will not have carding quotas, but they also won’t have to inform the public that it’s their right to walk away — a sticking point among some opponents. Police should consider the possibility of “psychological detention” — that is, that someone might feel they are compelled to stay, the chief says.

Critics who denounce carding as a means of racial profiling called for its ban, but that was never on the table. The board has stated there is an “important and practical need” for it. But it took months of wrangling between the chief and the board, and mediation with a judge, to reach Friday’s position.

Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, applauded the efforts and agreed it struck the right note. Previously, he said, carding had been used to measure performance, and “that was a definite driver in what could have been seen as some frivolous or unnecessary cards.”

But Anthony Morgan, a policy and research lawyer at the African Canadian Legal Clinic, said the new rules leave a lot to be desired.

“The things that stand out most glaringly for us is [that] the definition of valid public-safety purpose has been blown wide open,” he said. “The concern is now they don’t even need a specific reason, it would seem, to engage community members for the purpose of eliciting their information. Any officer can walk up and say ‘yes, I’m here to preserve the peace, I’m here to prevent other offences and crimes. That’s what their role is.”

Mr. Morgan criticized “colour-blind policing,” saying officers actually should consider someone’s race in so far as how it may inform how they are reacting to police striking up a conversation.

He also said that moving from requiring officers to hand out receipts to requiring the public to ask for a business card as proof of contact is a “regressive” step. “I think this is far from resolved,” said Mr. Morgan.

Police intend to monitor success by publicly reporting every year how often they engage the public and why.

Chief Blair said that with the new procedures, the instances in which a youngster who is not involved in criminal activity and does not threaten public safety ends up in a police database will decrease or disappear.

“I’m hopeful the communities will be encouraged by what they see,” he said. “I would ask that they not blindly trust us but I want them to know that we are all committed — our board, the city, our mayor — to ensuring this city is a city of inclusion.”

Jennifer was not worried. How hard could it be to make a pastrami sandwich?

Take two slices of light rye bread. Meat. A splash of French’s mustard, a dill pickle and a scoop of coleslaw on the side, and that would be that, Jennifer kept telling herself, when the family behind Moe Pancer’s Deli — a family owned and family loved establishment on Bathurst Avenue that had been serving loyal customers since 1957 — announced in 2010 they were selling the business to restaurateur Jerry Gould.

The new owner promised not to change the menu. Everything, sandwich wise, would be like it always had been, thought Jennifer, a regular for 35 years.

“The new owners couldn’t cut a sandwich for love or money,” she says. “The last sandwich I bought here before today was an absolute tragedy. It fell apart.

“Who knew it took such mad skills to cut a sandwich?”

Lorne Pancer, that is who. He is Moe Pancer’s grandson, and the Pancer who announced the family was moving on and partnering in a new venture, Pancer’s Deli Emporium, in Vaughan, north of Toronto.

Aaron Vincent Elkaim for National PostLorne Pancer blows a kiss to a customer on the reopening day of their historic family deli on Bathurst street in Toronto on Friday March 27, 2015.

Of course, it did not work out. Lorne, a city boy, hated the commute to the suburbs. So he sold his share in the business and found work as a loan officer, a job he loathed almost as much as being stuck in traffic.

“Every single day I would drive by our old deli, and every single day it would tug at my heart,” he says. “Deli is what I love to do.”

And that is a good thing, since Lenny Gould, Jerry’s son, abruptly closed his deli in January, citing mismanagement and paving the way for a Pancer return to 3856 Bathurst St. The new joint, with the old faces behind the counter, has been re-branded Pancer’s Original Deli.

Friday was opening day. Jennifer arrived before the lunch crowd to get a seat.

“It is nice and spicy,” she says, appraising her half-eaten pastrami on rye. “The meat is piled high in the middle, but it is distributed so it doesn’t fall apart.

“I am thrilled to have Lorne back.”

Aaron Vincent Elkaim for National Post“Who knew it took such mad skills to cut a sandwich?”

Lorne Pancer was behind the meat slicer, dressed in a black T-shirt, green jeans and blue sneakers. His nephew, Julian, a chef with a catering business, was nearby. Lorne’s brother, Michael, had tackled the breakfast shift and left for the day.

Lorne Pancer refers to himself as a “conductor,” and he was creating a symphony rendered in smoked meat for a blooming mess of hungry customers, who by 12:30 p.m., occupied every table in the restaurant, with a lineup out the door.

“When a guy loves a steak, he loves a steak,” the conductor says. “But when people love deli — they really love deli.”

At one point, a smoke alarm went off, so the guys in the kitchen popped open the back doors, drawing a cool rush of air inside. Nobody seemed bothered. They had come for the meat.

A slight man in his 70s with a grey beard plunked down at an empty table and introduced himself as “Bram,” from “Sharon, Lois and Bram.” The famous children’s musician has an infamous appetite for pastrami.

Aaron Vincent Elkaim for National PostLorne Pancer shows off some pastrami on the reopening day of their historic family deli on Bathurst street in Toronto on Friday March 27, 2015.

“You’re going to want to talk to me,” Bram Morrison says. He was just back from Alberta, where he had been touring with Sharon. (Lois is retired.)

“I was a customer at the previous incarnation of this place for over 20 years. When they closed in 2010, it was a very, very sad day. People were in mourning. Toronto had a Jewish delicatessen tradition since I was a kid.”

Places like Switzer’s, Shapiro’s, Becker’s, Goldenberg’s and more. Mom and pop operations, and all of them now gone. Not because the appetite for smoked meat sandwiches disappeared, but because the kids and grandkids didn’t want to take over the family business.

“Pancer’s was always the best,” Mr. Morrison says. “It remains to be seen if it still is.”

Ontario’s annual Sunshine List of public servants who make over $100,000 a year topped 100,000 people for the first time in 2014.

Once again, electricity executives were among the highest earners, but Ontario Power Generation President and CEO Tom Mitchell, who topped the 2013 list at over $1.7 million, actually decreased his total compensation slightly, to $1,563,093.80. Mitchell announced in February his intention to retire once his successor is chosen.

There are also a number of notable Torontonians on the list: Joe Pennachetti made $424,756.22 as Toronto’s city manager in 2014, but he also had to deal with Rob Ford. Toronto Transit Commission head Andy Byford pulled in $359,674.26 in taxable income and benefits. And the top paid TTC collector, Clarke Smith, raked in $141,146.29 last year.

Ian Troop, who was fired as CEO of the forthcoming Pan Am and ParaPan Am Games, took home $496,940.12 in severance. His successor Saad Rafi, who has long been the top paid civil servant in the province as deputy minister of health, did not appear on the Pan Am list but as deputy minister in Cabinet office. Rafi earned $448,814.48. In all, 101 people from Pan Am were on the Sunshine List, for a total cost of $17,162,728.88 in compensation.

The average salary on the list also decreased slightly, from $127,433 in 2013 to $127,178 in 2014.

The annual list, released Friday, includes 111,440 heads of Crown corporations, bureaucrats, police officer, doctors, city workers, firefighters and many others on the public payroll. That’s a 14% increase over last year’s 97,796. But a government spokesperson said that doesn’t paint an accurate picture.

The list was created in 1996, but $100,000 back then is worth about $142,000 today. Though Premier Kathleen Wynne said she has no intention of indexing the list to inflation, the government spokesperson said there would be fewer than 20,000 people on it if the threshold had been indexed to inflation, a decrease of almost 83%.

A few other top-earning public servants in Toronto include:

Rob Ford, former mayor, made the same as all his councillor colleagues: $178,884.18.

Earl Provost, Rob Ford former chief of staff in the mayor’s office (transfers from Ford to Norm Kelly after council stripped many of the former’s powers) who now works for the Ontario Liberal Party, took in a total of $247,744.54.

Amin Massoudi, a spokesperson for Ford who also worked his campaign, made a total of $120,123, including benefits.

Bill Blair, chief of police, made $351,593.02.

William Moriarty, University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation president, made the fourth most of all provincial or municipal public servants in Ontario at $939,335.16.

Barry McLellan, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre President and CEO, rounded out the top five at $765,304.95.

David Whitaker, president and CEO of the Toronto Convention and Visitors Association, made $498,799.51

Elizabeth Buller, president of St. Joseph’s Health Centre, earned a total of $457,752.15.

Robert Devitt, president and CEO of Toronto East General Hospital, earned $429,373.6o.

Jeffrey Griffiths, City of Toronto auditor general, made $374,390.82.

David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, earned a total of $312,459.86.

Brenda Patterson, deputy city manager, received $298,988.32.

Ulrike Watkiss, city clerk, made $258,938.48.

Eugene Jones, former head of TCHC who was fired and also got a $200,000 severance, took in $118,997 for a partial year’s work.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Ontario’s police watchdog says it is investigating an injury sustained by a 21-year-old woman who was hit by gunfire during an incident in Mississauga that also left a man dead and two police officers injured.

The Special Investigations Unit says it is continuing to probe the death of a 22-year-old man who was fatally shot on March 20 during an interaction with police in the city just west of Toronto.

The watchdog agency says it has also been investigating the injury sustained by Suzan Zreik as part of the entire investigation, adding Zreik was interviewed by SIU investigators about her injuries on March 23.

The agency says the man was shot multiple times after Peel Regional Police were called to a building and that he was pronounced dead at the scene.

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It says Zreik, who was in her home at the time of the incident, sustained a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Peel Regional Police have said one of the officers was shot and the other was stabbed, and described their injuries as serious.

The SIU says it has assigned five investigators and three forensic investigators to the case.

The arm’s-length agency investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/ontarios-police-watchdog-investigating-after-woman-shot-during-gunfight-that-killed-suspect-and-injured-two-cops/feed/0stdPJT-SIUWardenInvestigation-1.jpg$700M project at site of old Guvernment nightclub set to transform the Toronto waterfronthttp://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/na0327-guvernment
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/na0327-guvernment#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 12:30:15 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=728750

The last vestiges of the epic dance parties that once pulsated on Toronto’s waterfront beat through a white tent on Queens Quay Thursday.

The DJ turned up the volume. The crowds had to yell to be heard. The white and orange flowers added a touch of class.

But it wasn’t a reincarnation of the Guvernment nightclub, that warehouse of intoxicated revelry loomed next door, half demolished and ready to rise again.

The Daniels Corporation unveiled its plans for the Guvernment footprint on Thursday — a whopping $700-million development that includes two mid-rise commercial towers, two sky-high residential ones and post-secondary academic space.

Dubbed the “City of the Arts,” it has already secured as tenants Artscape, the non-profit community development agency, talent management firm Last Gang Entertainment, non-profits Manifesto and The Remix Project, and entertainment law firm Taylor Klein Oballa, which represents Gordon Lightfoot and Drake, among others. Daniels says it, too, will be moving its headquarters by the lake.

This is the first development to be built on privately owned land in the city’s new East Bayfront neighbourhood, across the street from the Corus building and the popular Sugar Beach. And it comes amid a flurry of construction along the once desolate stretch of the eastern waterfront.

Anchored by Corus and a George Brown College satellite, Tridel condos are planned for south of Queens Quay, between Sherbourne Common park and the Parliament Slip, Monde condominiums will rise north of that, and last month Menkes announced its “innovation centre,” a 350,000-square-foot complex of commercial space for 2,000 employees. Knitting it all
together is a promenade along the water’s edge.

HANDOUT/THE DANIELS CORPORATIONA handout image of the Daniels Waterfront City of the Arts development that is proposed to be go in the area of Queen's Quay East and Jarvis Street in Toronto, also known as the site of the former club The Guvernment.

At the press conference Thursday, Mayor John Tory paid tribute to Daniels (of TIFF Bell Lightbox and the redevelopment of Regent Park fame) and a style he said captures “that sense of a soul” in Toronto.

“I don’t go to every project that is being opened or initiated in this city,” said Mr. Tory. “I wanted to be here today because it is such a special mix of a place where people will live and work and play and study. And care.”

Tom Dutton, senior vice-president at Daniels, said the company is in talks with George Brown and OCAD University to occupy the academic space.

The commercial component is slated to open in 2018 and will include an RBC branch, along with “local and national brand stores,” restaurants and coffee shops. The residential towers, one at 48 storeys and the other around 38, are part of a second phase of development, to start nine months after the first.

City of the Arts was designed by architects Giannone Petricone Associates Inc. and RAW Design, and drew on the expertise of Toronto urban planner Ken Greenberg. He noted that when all is said and done, there will be three times as many people during the day as there will be at night — a notable flip for a spot where electronic and rock concerts were once the draw.

HANDOUT/THE DANIELSA handout image of the Daniels Waterfront City of the Arts development that is proposed to be go in the area of Queen's Quay East and Jarvis Street in Toronto, also known as the site of the former club The Guvernment.

The project also includes a small extension of Sugar Beach and an east-west pedestrian connection called “The Yard” with shops, cafes and special events.

One piece that is still missing is light-rail transit. While John Campbell, president of Waterfront Toronto, applauded the TTC for providing buses to the area “like a conveyor belt,” he said higher order transit is key. But the project costs $525-million (including a $150-million street rebuild) and no funding. Mr. Campbell said Waterfront Toronto needs to look at how it might trim that price.

Mr. Dutton, with Daniels, called the LRT “very nice to have” and suggested that as development continues, the impetus will grow.

At the Menkes event last month, Mayor Tory said it was a “priority” to bring transit along the east waterfront and that the city is figuring out just how high it ranks.

National Post

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/na0327-guvernment/feed/0stdCITY OF THE ARTS NORTHWEST VIEW.jpgHANDOUT/THE DANIELS CORPORATIONHANDOUT/THE DANIELSRob Ford to apologize for using racial slurs while mayor, because it turns out he broke city’s code of conducthttp://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/rob-ford-to-apologize-for-using-racial-slurs-while-mayor-because-it-turns-out-he-broke-citys-code-of-conduct
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/rob-ford-to-apologize-for-using-racial-slurs-while-mayor-because-it-turns-out-he-broke-citys-code-of-conduct#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 17:45:37 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=728192

Rob Ford plans to provide a “comprehensive and specific apology” for instances in which he has admitted to uttering racial slurs while mayor, after the city’s integrity commissioner found he violated the code of conduct.

The promised mea culpa will occur at next week’s council meeting, according to integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson.

It stems from a complaint brought forward by Ethiopian-Canadian journalist Samuel Getachew regarding an episode in 2012 and another in 2014.

In the first instance, Mr. Ford addressed a cab driver by a “racial slur” and made “mocking fake language sounds,” according to a report by Ms. Jepson. The account originated in a police interview with former Ford staff member Isaac Ransom, and was widely reported by the media.

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In 2014, according to an article in the Toronto Star, Mr. Ford said “Nobody sticks up for people like I do, every f—ing k–e, n—r, f—ing w-p, d-go, whatever the race. Nobody does. I’m the most racist guy around. I’m the mayor of Toronto.”

The statements were not just inappropriate, but “abusive, harmful and agreed by society to be unacceptable,” concludes Ms. Jepson.

“Considering the position he held at the time, his actions were egregious and wholly unbecoming of the Office of the Mayor,” she wrote.

Mr. Ford “did not dispute the allegations or defend his actions” but he did point the integrity commissioner to a sweeping apology he made upon returning from rehab last June.

Both Ms. Jepson and Mr. Getachew sought a more specific apology and Mr. Ford’s chief of staff says he will address the matter next week at council.

The commissioner says no further action is necessary should an apology be made, although she did urge Mr. Ford to be “sincere” with his words.

But Councillor Shelley Carroll said she’s not looking forward to the display because in the past, his apologies have been “utterly disingenuous.”

“We never see any real learning from the apologies that happen in this hall,” said Ms. Carroll. “The only thing that really has any impact on Rob is the public… when the public said you have disappointed me, then he made a serious apology about his crack use. I could have asked him to apologize a million times, he would have kept right on smoking crack. The public was upset and that’s when it mattered to him.”

TORONTO — The drug trial for Alexander Lisi, a friend of Rob Ford, began Wednesday with a former undercover officer describing events leading up to the arrest that occurred at the height of the “crack video” scandal embroiling the former mayor.

Following not guilty pleas by Lisi and his co-accused, Jamshid (Jay) Bahrami, the Crown opened its case with the officer describing how he approached Bahrami in August 2013 at his west-end dry-cleaning store to buy marijuana.

Det. Ross Fernandes testified he deliberately placed a pack of cigarette-rolling papers in a shirt pocket he took for cleaning in hopes of sparking a conversation about drugs.

The lure worked, and Fernandes and Bahrami began talking about marijuana.

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At one point, Bahrami, 49, who has a degenerative and painful arthritic condition, explained that he had a licence to grow marijuana, which he said made him feel better, but that he needed someone to do the growing for him, court heard.

Bahrami complained that Lisi, 36, who he said was connected to Ford, had been “ripping him off” by overcharging for pot and that he “needed to trust somebody else.”

Initial efforts, however, to connect Lisi and Fernandes failed.

Lisi, court heard, had been lying low in light of the scandal embroiling Ford involving reports of a video that apparently shows him smoking crack cocaine.

“Don’t you read the newspapers? The media are all over him,” Fernandes said Bahrami told him.

“I only look at the Sunshine girls,” Fernandes said he responded.

Lisi faces separate charges of extortion related to his alleged attempts to retrieve the “crack video.”

Don’t you read the newspapers? The media are all over him

In Lisi’s absence, Fernandes was introduced to “Dan” — another dealer — who offered to supply marijuana but repeatedly failed to deliver.

“We didn’t want to do the deal that day,” Fernandes explained. “Only a cop would come whenever you called for him.”

Lisi, who was also Ford’s driver and occasional bodyguard, faces three counts — trafficking in marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession of the proceeds of crime. A trafficking conspiracy charge was withdrawn.

Bahrami, owner of a west-end dry cleaning business, faces two counts of trafficking in marijuana and one of possessing cocaine.

The defence has said it will argue Bahrami was entrapped and that wiretap evidence implicating Lisi is inadmissible.

The trial had been delayed a day because Lisi did not show on Tuesday, apparently due to illness.

They were small signs of the new alliance between the leaders of Canada’s two largest cities.

First, from Toronto Mayor John Tory, who displayed a framed poster of hockey legend Maurice “Rocket” Richard in his city hall office as a gesture to Denis Coderre, the mayor of Montreal, who came to visit on Wednesday. If he stumbled on a word in his rudimentary French, Mr. Coderre was there to help. “Maurice transcends Montreal,” Mr. Coderre smiled.

There was, of course, more hockey banter to be had, but Wednesday’s meeting was in fact to present a new, united front when it comes to seeking international investment and convincing the federal government to spend more money on cities.

It’s an alliance they say will be a “win-win” for both metropolises, soon to be “sister cities” with a formal agreement to prove it. Mr. Tory plans to travel to Montreal in the coming months to make it official.

“The two solitudes are over,” said Mr. Coderre at a morning press conference at Toronto city hall. “I think what people are expecting is to work together.”

Mr. Tory argued that “in this very complicated, very competitive world … we are going to gain more as cities, as the two biggest cities in Canada … if we work more together.” That includes making the pitch for investment abroad, he said. The two men highlighted various areas of common interest — from tourism to transportation, multimedia, pharma and financial services — and said they believe a concerted effort can reap greater rewards.

Mr. Coderre later delivered a lunch-hour speech at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, in a room filled with former Liberal MP colleagues and big business figures from Cisco Systems Canada and the Toronto Dominion Bank Group.

“There is a new path here, there’s a new trend where everybody is sticking together and saying we don’t fall in the trap of divide to conquer,” Mr. Coderre told attendees.

There was also a shedding of the ghosts of controversial mayors past. “We had our share. You had your share, in Toronto. Now you have a mayor. Now we have a mayor,” said Mr. Coderre. “Montreal is back.”

Both he and Mr. Tory noted the opportunity that the federal election presents when it comes to securing more money for urban centres, specifically in the areas of housing, infrastructure and public transportation.

Mr. Tory acknowledged that funding has been flowing from Ottawa in the form of the gas tax, but he said more and consistent money is needed.

“I’m not looking for new taxes but we can talk about revenue share,” Mr. Coderre told reporters following his speech.

He stressed that their push during the federal election is “above partisanship.” (He used the quip: “Been there, done that, got a T-shirt” twice on Wednesday.)

“You know, we have a saying in French, it’s not the size of the axe that matters, it’s the strength of the swing,” said Mr. Coderre, who invited Mr. Tory to attend a summit in Montreal in June that is meant to address anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Mr. Coderre praised the governance of Toronto’s transit system, and the relations between the business community and the arts. He counts himself a Blue Jays fan now, and plans to attend the Pan Am Games this summer. But for all the talk of a great new alliance, a little friendly competition might remain. To a question at the Board of Trade about joint tourism marketing and Toronto’s apparent lack of “sexy” attractions, Mr. Coderre responded: “Yeah, we don’t have that problem.”

Mayor John Tory set out for the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Tex., last week with two goals in mind: to sell Toronto and to learn how to improve it. On Monday, back from the annual “music, film and interactive” event, where he rubbed shoulders with Austin’s civic and cultural leaders, Mr. Tory laid out his vision for raising his hometown’s hipness-factor. The National Post’s Nicole Thompson rounds up the five biggest things Mr. Tory says he learned in Austin.

IT’S ALL ABOUT BUZZ
Austin has a buzz about it, Mr. Tory told a press conference on Monday. He says that in order to attract talented youngsters in the tech and music industries, Toronto needs to create more buzz-worthy events, such as Nuit Blanche and Pride Week. “The challenge is to produce five more of those, in the visual arts, in music, and a bunch of other areas,” he said.

RIDE THE MUSIC
Mr. Tory said the best way to grow Toronto’s music industry, like the city has grown its film industry, is to incorporate music into such pre-existing events as the Pan Am Games and Pride Week. He said he wants to make Toronto a music destination for tourists and artists alike.

YOU NEED TO SAY YES
Finding ways to say “yes” to things will be key to making Toronto more like Austin, Mr. Tory said. “Including saying yes to food trucks.” Toronto’s food trucks are not allowed within 150 metres of a restaurant. In Austin, the limit is only 15 metres.

AUSTIN HAS ANSWERS
Mr. Tory said he plans to invite the mayor and other Austin civic leaders to visit Toronto for a summit to discuss “interactive conferences” (a buzzword to describe such gatherings as SXSW) later this year. Toronto already hosts the sister North by Northeast (NXNE) music festival, which will hold its 21st incarnation later this year. The mayor said he expects a plan for how the summit will be executed in as little as four weeks.

HIPNESS IS RELATIVE
Mr. Tory said he won’t compare Toronto to Austin on the “hip scale. … I’m probably the last person to be a proper judge.” However, the mayor said he attended his first-ever “hip-hop event” while in Austin — which he “hugely enjoyed” — so his place on that hipness scale may be going up.

A smoother ride home awaits Torontonians after the city’s busiest stretch of subway was re-opened Tuesday afternoon following an oily spill that gummed up the morning rush.

The busiest subway line in Canada’s largest city was shut down Tuesday morning after a mysterious liquid, believed to be flammable, was discovered at track level.

Brad Ross/TTC/TwitterTTC crews and firefighters work to clean up a spill of an unknown oily liquid that is likely flammable. The spill, discovered early Tuesday, shut down subway service on one of the busiest stretches of track in Toronto.

Line 1, formerly known as the Yonge line, in Toronto was shuttered overnight from Bloor Street to Union Station after the discovery of what was described as an “environmental spill.” Thousands of customers were packed into shuttle buses to run the nearly four-kilometre stretch — one of the busiest in the city — that runs to and from downtown.

“All of the various experts have come in; what everyone concludes is this is definitely not water,” Toronto Transit Commission CEO Andy Byford said early Tuesday morning. “This substance smells like a flammable liquid, in which case we cannot take the chance. At the end of the day our trains run on electricity they generate sparks and they’re in a confined space, i.e. a tunnel. So I think customers will understand we cannot take a chance with their safety, we’re not going to. I’d rather have the flak and take the flak for cramming people on bus than put people’s safety at risk.”

Matthew Sherwood for National PostMorning commuters wait for a shuttle bus on Yonge Street as TTC subway service is suspended between Union and Bloor-Yonge stations in Toronto on Tuesday.

Investigation into source of oil-like substance leaking into the tunnel north of College continues. There are 70 buses running on Yonge #TTC

The TTC has put booms down to contain the substance and allow for clean up before trains start running again. Crews dusted the area with “absorbent granules” to suck up the mystery liquid, Byford said. The transit commission had several crews working for a fix.

“You can never replicate a subway service with shuttle buses,” Byford said at a second press conference. A subway train can carry around 1,000 people at peak hours and a bus around 60, “so you need a huge number of buses in order to provide an effective shuttle.”

There were 70 buses running up and down Yonge, some of them pulled from other routes.

Commuters will be relieved to know they won’t have to line up and pack in as they head home tonight.

“Having been down onto the tracks and seeing how much liquid is coming in, and having smelt it, we’ve done exactly the right thing putting safety first,” Byford said, adding it smells like kerosene. “This is not just dripping through, it’s pouring through the ceiling. There’s quite a pool on the tracks there. It’s a large quantity. It’s continuing to come through,” Byford said.

This substance smells like a flammable liquid

On Twitter, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross called the spill “oil-like.”

Crews filled in an expansion gap where the substance was leaking through, but they still don’t know the exact source. Byford said it’s possible it’s coming from an underground fuel tank at a hotel or other large building nearby that cracked as the city thaws for spring.

“This [liquid] is not generated by the TTC, it’s something stored presumably underground or coming through from service level that is impacting our tracks,” Byford said.

A press release announcing the line had re-opened said officials still haven’t solved the mystery: “The source of the substance remains unknown, but no major spills have been detected in the area, and the tunnel has been sealed and is safe for trains and people to travel through.”

The expansion gap is a normal part of the tunnel, and allows the sides to expand and contract as the seasons change. Two areas are now being filled with grout, but once the source of the leak is discovered and fixed, the gaps will have to be cleared.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Mot6sJYuw&w=640&h=390]

The closure created congestion beyond that line, as some customers complained of waiting longer than normal for buses as some were diverted to port others down Yonge. The north part of Line 1 was jam packed and delayed because of the trains turning around at Bloor. Lines stretched from Yonge Street to Bloor Street, a long city block, to wait for the shuttles.

Matthew Sherwood for National PostThe scene near college station Tuesday.

All I know is I can’t run trains with that safety risk

“The key issue is to find out where this stuff is coming from, if it does mean the road has to be dug up, so be it. We’re involving the city and every possible agency,” Byford said. “All I know is I can’t run trains with that safety risk.”

North of College, track-level. Leak is oil-like, unsafe to operate. Planning to grout tunnel joints. Update to follow http://t.co/zC6pOuytZk

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/this-is-definitely-not-water-spill-creates-commuting-chaos-in-toronto-as-main-subway-line-shuttered/feed/0]]>stdttc spill workBrad Ross/TTC/TwitterMatthew Sherwood for National PostMatthew Sherwood for National PostIntroducing the first and only object it’s ok to describe as ‘so gay': a sweater made entirely of human hairhttp://news.nationalpost.com/life/introducing-the-first-and-only-object-its-ok-to-describe-as-so-gay-a-sweater-made-entirely-of-human-hair
http://news.nationalpost.com/life/introducing-the-first-and-only-object-its-ok-to-describe-as-so-gay-a-sweater-made-entirely-of-human-hair#commentsTue, 24 Mar 2015 10:00:05 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=725407

Using the word “gay” as a pejorative is about as cool as wearing a sweater made of human hair.

It’s icky. It’s weird. And it’s not going to make you any friends.

If you live in an age after the 1990s and outside of a teenage gross-out comedy, there’s literally no reason to call something “so gay.” Until now.

Courtesy The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity A 360-degree shot of the "Gay Sweater" the only object its creators say is ok to call "gay" because its made entirely from human hair from the heads of actual LGBT people.

Because it’s knitted entirely out of hair from the heads of actual gay people. That’s right, people collected and the spun wool out of human hair, all to make the point that using “gay” as a pejorative is well, gross and unnecessary. Kinda like the sweater if it were not about a cause but sold at Anthropologie for far too much money.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries&w=640&h=390]

The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity collected the hair and brought together knitters in Toronto to bring the sweater to life. After a rainbow array of buttons were added, the Big Gay Sweater will be revealed Tuesday as part of Toronto fashion week.

The hope is to get the hashtag #TheGaySweater trending to raise awareness of how offensive it is to use “gay” as a derogatory word.

“I would have loved to grow up in a world where ‘that’s so gay’ wasn’t a thing,” Jeremy Dias, director of the centre says in a video unveiling the creation.

Kelly, one of the hair donors, explained why using “gay” to mean “bad” is offensive even when not intended as a homophobic slur: “I know the argument is, ‘well I don’t mean it that way, I just mean that it’s stupid.’ Find a different way of saying that because gay is taken and it doesn’t mean anything negative.”

It’s actually awful to knit with; it’s all over our laps; it’s all over the floor

“We want the conversation that surrounds the gay sweater to inspire those who are using ‘gay’ in a detrimental way to both realize the negative impact their actions are having and change their behavior,” he said in an accompanying release, encouraging people to chime in using the hashtag #TheGaySweater.

All that hair created quite a challenge for even the most seasoned of knitters, who described the challenging process to both create the “yarn” and to knit with it.

“It’s actually awful to knit with; it’s all over our laps; it’s all over the floor,” one said.

All the hair was washed before it was cut and collected, the centre assures. And for those wondering about the reference to “hair shirts” and Medieval Christian penance, that’s not intentional, according to a backgrounder from the organization:

“Though The Gay Sweater is a little itchy, it serves a much different purpose, that being to educate people on what really is and isn’t supposed to be called ‘gay’. As well, no one will ever be forced to wear The Gay Sweater – only those who want to wear it will do so.”

Models will done the skin-crawling creation in David Pecaut Square in Toronto on Tuesday evening, so if you’re in town you can check it out for yourself.

The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity began as Dias’s campaign, known as Jer’s Vision, in 2005 and was a leading organization in bringing the annual “Day of Pink” to Canada, where everyone from celebrities to politicians to school kids don pink shirts to protest bullying of sexual minorities.

Once Fashion Week wraps, the sweater will be use as an educational prop during the centre’s outreach activities.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/life/introducing-the-first-and-only-object-its-ok-to-describe-as-so-gay-a-sweater-made-entirely-of-human-hair/feed/4stdgay-sweater-2-useCourtesy The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity Teenaged boy rushed to hospital after stabbing at the corner of Don Mills and Overlea in Torontohttp://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/teenaged-boy-rushed-to-hospital-after-stabbing-at-the-corner-of-don-mills-and-overlea-in-toronto
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/teenaged-boy-rushed-to-hospital-after-stabbing-at-the-corner-of-don-mills-and-overlea-in-toronto#commentsMon, 23 Mar 2015 17:05:03 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=725170

TORONTO — A 15-year-old boy has been rushed to hospital after a stabbing in Toronto.

Paramedics say they were called to the scene (near Don Mills Road and Overlea Boulevard) just before 11:30 a.m. Monday and transported a male victim with stab wounds to the torso.

They say he was conscious and breathing when he was taken to hospital.

Two schools in the area (Mark Garneau Collegiate and Valley Park Middle School) were placed on hold and secure mode.

Former mayoral contestant Doug Ford is slamming Mayor John Tory for refusing to help clear the Fords’ hundreds of thousands in campaign debt.

Ford jumped into the race after his brother, former mayor and current councillor Rob Ford, dropped out to focus on treating his cancer and running for council. The Fords are holding a fundraiser May 14 to recoup some of the $800,000 they spent out of pocket on the failed mayoral bids. Doug Ford says he spent about $900,000 in his few weeks in the race, about $600,000 of his own cash. His brother doled out $500,000, about $200,000 from family funds.

Peter J. Thompson/National PostRob Ford and John Tory in December, before the political gloves were off.

Mayor Tory has said he won’t be attending and told Doug Ford as much at an event in December. Tory said in the past he has been happy to help rivals recoup their losses because everyone punched above the belt. He added that Doug Ford’s campaign crossed a line and attacked his personal integrity unlike past races where he helped rivals raise money after the fact.

“Anybody thinking for just a moment about the prospect of my going out and raising money which financed, in a sense quite directly, attack ads that call into question my character and my integrity must think that I fell off some sort of a turnip truck,” Tory said.

The mayor’s refusal to attend the May event sent Doug Ford on a tear, first ripping into the chief magistrate on CP24 on Sunday night, then hitting Toronto’s AM radio on Monday morning.

I’m not complaining about the ads as much as saying you can’t expect me to help pay for them

“I think would be expecting a bit much,” Tory said of his decision not to attend. He said ads Doug Ford ran directly attacked him. “It’s a free country… I’m not complaining about the ads as much as saying you can’t expect me to help pay for them.”

Related

“Mr. Tory doesn’t want to help, but that’s his choice,” Doug Ford said Sunday. “I welcome him, but obviously he doesn’t want to. I asked him if he could attend or support in any way… but I don’t know what his problem is, to be honest with you.”

Tickets for the event at Doug Ford’s mothers home are $300.

Tory is involved with a fundraiser to support David Socknaki, who dropped out of the Toronto mayoral race in the summer, after racking up six figures in personal debt.

That event is a high-price fundraiser starting at $1,500 a plate and features several Toronto mayors and candidates, past and present, including Mel Lastman, Barbara Hall and David Crombie.

Tory has a history of helping failed mayoral hopefuls recover some of the costs of running such a large campaign.

In January 2011, he co-hosted a reception alongside former premiers Mike Harris and David Peterson to help Rob Ford, Sarah Thompson and Rocco Rossi, who all ran for the city’s top job in 2010, repay their debts.

Tory also attended a 2004 fundraiser to help repay then mayor David Miller’s $200,000 campaign debt. And Tory also donated to Doug Ford’s 2010 successful run for a spot on city council.

So what’s changed?

Both Ford brothers took aim at Tory during the mayoral race, but Doug Ford went after Tory on a level the mayor seemed to take personally. The Ford campaign attacked Tory’s resume as a list of appointments from powerful friends and accused him of never having worked for anything he’s earned. Both Tory and the Fords are wealthy and from wealthy backgrounds.

At one point, Tory called Doug Ford a “bully,” while Ford mocked Tory as an “elitist.”

Tory has not yet filed his campaign donations and expenses with city hall and he has until Friday to do so. Third-place finisher Olivia Chow raised over $1.9 million. Mayoral candidates were allowed to spent about$1.3 million each on direct campaign expenses. Chow was able to use the additional almost $600,000 on things like fundraisers that must be reported but don’t count toward the $1.3 million limit.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/doug-ford-racked-up-hundreds-of-thousands-in-campaign-debt-and-says-mayor-john-tory-wont-help-clear-it/feed/1stdDoug Ford (left) shakes hands with John Tory after taking part in a Toronto Mayoral Debate in Toronto on Tuesday, September 23, 2014.Peter J. Thompson/National PostPeter J. Thompson/National PostToronto ombudsman Fiona Crean to step down after five turbulent years in officehttp://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/toronto-ombudsman-fiona-crean-to-step-down-after-five-turbulent-years-in-office
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/toronto-ombudsman-fiona-crean-to-step-down-after-five-turbulent-years-in-office#commentsMon, 23 Mar 2015 15:49:38 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=725006

Toronto’s city ombudsman Fiona Crean announced Monday that she will step down at the end of her term after five turbulent years — which often saw her pitted against former Mayor Rob Ford.

News of Ms. Crean’s departure came as her office released its annual report, showing that complaints about the city increased by 22% in 2014.

A majority of the complaints that escalated to Ms. Crean’s office centred around poor communication from the city — unreturned phone calls, long response times and impenetrable correspondence, the report said.

Mayor John Tory released a statement applauding Ms. Crean for her “gusto and determination.”

“Leading the office of ‘last resort’ – as the Office of Ombudsman is known – is not an easy task,” he said.

Ms. Crean, whose current term is set to expire in November, earned the ire of Mayor Rob Ford and his supporters with several scathing reports beginning in 2012. Ever since, councillors have sparred over whether to reappoint her for a second-five year term. In a compromise deal reached in October 2012, Ms. Crean’s contract was extended for two years.

Ms. Crean said she decided to step down because the city council debate on her reappointment promised to be “divisive” and would hurt her office “and its efforts to ensure fairness for the city’s residents.”